7 comments:

"Observers suggested that a high turnout among young voters may have helped Labour gain seats in a country where the biggest political divide is to be found between the young and the old.

Labour does “8 percentage points better than the Conservatives among the very poorest, 15 points better among the jobless and 25 better among those who voted against Brexit. But its lead among voters under 25 is a jaw-dropping 44 points, nearly triple the size of the gap in the previous general election, in 2015,” according to The Economist.

The politicians and the pundits need to take Francis advice and pay attention to the young and the old.

The elderly voted for Brexit because they thought that money sent to the EU would be diverted to healthcare; after election they were told that would not happen. Then May proposed the so called "dementia tax" to increase the amount they would have to pay for health care.

The young, many of whom did not vote, woke up after Brexit with their future opportunities to work and live elsewhere in the EU threaten. How would we feel if after putting all that time into education we suddenly found we might only be able to live and work in our home state.

Margaret, I don't think Britain, even in its present mood, can dump May with Brexit talks less than two weeks away. And I don't think anyone in his right mind would want Boris Johnson negotiating anything but a route to the men's room, certainly not Brexit.

Meanwhile, the last standing leader of the free world is in Mexico on this very day. I beleve Mrs Merkel is making a deal to sell Mexico some Liebherr wall removal equipment. But I could be wrong.

I find the British system confusing. As I understand it, Theresa May didn't have to call this election at this time. Same thing with David Cameron and the Brexit referendum. So why did they do it? Overconfidence? Or did they feel it was necessary to rally the troops? Either way, it seems to have backfired.

Cameron: Having done some renegotiating with "Brussels," i.e., the EU about what I don't remember, he was "hounded" by Conservatives who wanted to Brexit (I believe they had a separate political party [UKIP?] now put out of business or at least I think they lost all of their seat. Cameron is said to have felt confident that the referendum would fail. I suppose he hoped to put an end to the question about UK membership by holding the referendum. I suppose in British politics his resignation was required...like the Japanese and hari-kari.

Was Mrs. May the only willing candidate? Probably not, but she got the job. She was said to have been confident that a larger Tory majority would back her Brexit efforts. She seems not to be a very deft politician and her losses here suggest as much.

I don't think we've seen the end of this, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the end of her. Of course, no one else may want the job of negotiating the exit and then being blamed for the likely unfortunate consequences.